Tips for Inviting Your Neighbors to Church this Easter Season

As Easter approaches, parishes become filled with a sense of renewal and hope. It's the perfect time to come together with our neighbors and celebrate the joy of the Resurrection. If you're looking for meaningful ways to extend an invitation to your local community, you're in the right place. From simple gestures to community-wide initiatives, here are 14 ways to invite your neighbors this Easter and make it a truly communal celebration!

1. First Thing’s First — The most important way to attract people from your community to visit or join your parish is to already have a welcoming parish environment. Consider how warm and welcoming your parish may, or may not, feel to a visitor. It’s also important to assess how inclusive your community is for people with disabilities and how accessible information about your parish is online!
   
   
2. Social Media: Parish Posts and Sponsored Ads — Don’t forget to put your invitations to Holy Week events, Easter Mass times, and Easter season events all over your social media profiles. Use beautiful imagery (check out WeCreate if you need pre-designed Catholic graphics), engaging copy, and links to event pages on your website to make sure everyone is looped into the opportunities at your parish. Consider boosting some of these posts on Instagram or sponsoring an ad on Facebook.
   
   
3. Social Media: Parishioner Invites — Be sure to make specific posts on your social media profiles that you invite parishioners to repost onto their own social media profiles. Considering telling parishioners at Mass during the announcements that you have posted a neighborhood invitation that you would love for them to repost! This is an excellent way to reach your extended community.
   
   
4. Your Website — Many newcomers will check out your parish website before they ever step foot inside your church. This is your opportunity to be sure that your homepage is designed to welcome outsiders into your parish. Check out this blog post on the essentials, 4 Tips to Make Your Church’s Homepage More Inviting.
   
   
5. Neighborhood Mailers — Do you know about Every Door Direct Mail by the USPS ? The USPS has a super simple way for you to create and send out mailers to everyone in your area right from their website! You can download one of the thousands of graphics available on WeCreate, or use a flyer template to get you started!
   
   
6. Parishioner Yard Signs — Create lawn signs advertising your Easter events for your parishioners to take home and put on their properties. Imagine having customized signs advertising your church or ministries wherever your parishioners live! Just be sure to include a large enough QR code that someone could scan it from their car to access more information from your church homepage.
   
   
7. Road Banners — If your city allows you to put up a banner along the road on your property, this is a great way to get visibility for your Easter events and a personal invite to anyone who drives by!
   
   
8. Flyers Around Town — Consider asking your local coffee house or grocery store if you can post a flyer advertising Easter at your parish. Don’t forget about our Catholic art and graphic library, WeCreate, if you need professional-looking graphics and flyer templates for Easter and other holidays.
   
   
9. Business Card Invites for Parishioners — print out small business cards with an invite to Easter and provide them after Mass so parishioners can hand them out to friends, neighbors, and whoever else they may want to invite!
      
10. Put an Invite in the Local Newspaper or Newsletter — Is there a local newspaper or newsletter that your community reads? Consider taking out ad-space in the paper and placing an invite to Easter at your parish there. Many non-profits, community and senior centers, and even specialty groups have newsletters that are supported by ads. This is a great way to show that you support the other people doing great work in your community as well as to invite your neighbors to join you for Easter.
    
    
11. Partner With Businesses Who Already Support You — Speaking of taking out ads, do you have businesses who support your parish by advertising in your bulletin? Be sure to invite them to your Easter services! These people already support your parish so getting a personal invite to join your community for the Easter season is a lovely gesture! If you are scratching your head at this suggestion, here’s some information on how to get a weekly ad-supported church bulletin printed for free with LPi.
    
    
12. Nextdoor.com — Encourage your parishioners to post about your Easter events on the neighborhood community app, Nextdoor. It is almost guaranteed that there is a Nextdoor community for your zip code and many people use this social media platform to post about neighborhood events. 
     
13. Community Facebook Groups — Do your ministry leaders or parish staff belong to any local community Facebook groups? If so, invite them to create a post in the group inviting members to Easter at your parish! Don’t forget to include an image in the post like your flyer or an image of your parish community during Easter.
    
    
14. Local Radio Ad — Yes, people still listen to the radio! Consider paying for ad space at your local radio station and advertising a welcoming invite to Easter at your parish!

Remember, you don’t have to wait for a holiday or special occasion to intentionally focus on establishing an inviting parish community for your neighborhood! Consider our past blogs “Common Mistakes Churches Make About Visitors to Their Parish (and how to fix them!)” and “4 Tips to Make Your Church’s Homepage More Inviting” and get started today.

May your Easter season be blessed with the joy of spring and resurrection!